


always the bridesmaid

by fluffywonder



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, slight nonconsensual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 20:17:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21482245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffywonder/pseuds/fluffywonder
Summary: Caroline Forbes’ love life leaves a lot to be desired —OR:All the times she plays second fiddle to Elena and the one time she doesn’t.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Alaric Saltzman, Caroline Forbes/Damon Salvatore, Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Stefan Salvatore, Caroline Forbes/Tyler Lockwood, Matt Donovan/Caroline Forbes
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	always the bridesmaid

She dances, vivid red dress flaring and blue solo cup firmly in hand. If someone had asked her, she couldn’t tell them what beat she was spinning to, just that she was alone as usual. She wasn’t up to making a fool of herself again while watching the new guy  _(Stefan)_ moon after Elena, as per usual, and no one else seemed worth the effort in that moment. She could go talk to Bonnie, of course, but she was never quite sure how to handle Bonnie’s recent drama with her Grams and floating feathers. A witch? Please. Witches didn’t exist, not in perfect small towns like Mystic Falls.

_ (It’s Mystic Falls...  
_ _ Nothing bad ever happens here.)_

——

Matt is a heartbeat, barely a blip — he is more of a  _fuck you_ to Elena than he is anything else. Trouble is, he knows it, hell,  _everyone_ knows it, maybe even Elena, deep deep down. But then Elena bats those pretty dark eyes and smiles so guilelessly,  _congratulations_ and  _I’m-so-happy-for-you-guys_ pouring from her lips effortlessly. It makes Caroline suck in a breath and remind herself that Elena’s not the villain of her story. The princess, maybe, and  _god_ is it unfair that the princess has  (_had - her parents are dead now_, Caroline reminds herself)  the perfect life without even trying, and it’s absolutely infuriating that Elena actually  _is_ that genuinely nice — and Caroline has to remind herself that yes, she hates Elena, but she’s not the villain here.

——

Damon is a mistake.

Damon is dangerous, is everything her mom told her to stay away from. The mom who’s never home and who seems to have found a soft spot for Damon all the same. Caroline loves this small act of rebellion — right up until he bites her neck. She had forgotten what he was, forgotten that with him came an element of fear, because where Salvatores went, Katherine Pierce was sure to follow, and it’s not even a few hours later that she suffocates Caroline with her own pillow, but not before feeding her some blood.

——

Tyler is  _after_.  Tyler reflects everything dark and raw and real in her, the girl who can push him down to the bed and hold him there, wrecking the bedframe in the process. The girl who is all snarls and flashing teeth and wild, savage movements. He gives as good as he gets, sharp thrusts and amber eyes. They are both a hairsbreadth away from complete destruction, always one step away from falling off the cliff. It is beautiful. It is temporary. It can’t last, and they both know it, knew it well before everything fell apart.

_(They fall apart when she turns off her humanity and he turns to Liv.)_

——

Klaus is giving in to everything she has tried so hard not to be, especially since her mom’s death. Klaus is the best thing she’s ever done, and the worst. He is rough, he is sharp edges, he is blood on her lips and a burn between her thighs; he is an impulse she will not curb. Klaus is power she’s never had and a weakness she’s never wanted. Klaus is  hers; he’s never wanted Elena, never been trapped in a cycle of neverending love (even Katherine, he was just using her). He’s hers, all hers — but she doesn’t get to keep him.

His heart first belonged to a girl who wore Elena’s face _(TatiaTatiaTatia_ is a drumbeat in the back of her mind), and look at that — Elena is taking something from her centuries before she’s even born. Caroline hates herself for the mere thought, because the existence of doppelgangers hasn’t been easy for any of them, least of all Elena. So no, she doesn’t get to keep Klaus, because first he belonged to Tatia, and now he belongs to something else entirely. His heart belongs to New Orleans, to Hope, to Elijah. His heart belongs to  _Always and Forever._

_(She keeps his letter but she never visits.)_

——

Alaric never really was hers in the first place. They were always running on borrowed time. The girls were their world, sweet Josie and Lizzie, but his heart always belonged to Josette Parker, even when he asked her achingly, longingly, if they could be together properly.

He was the same as her, she knew, just lonely and tired of losing everyone and everything he touched and loved. Their paths would have barely crossed if not for happenstance; his heart wasn’t truly meant for hers.

_(Don’t look now, but her heart had always belonged to someone else too — it had been love at first sight.)_

They were planning a June wedding.

——

She doesn’t know then that she’ll get barely a day as a bride, and somehow it’s not fair that she got so little time when Elena Gilbert got an eternity of happiness - but Caroline also knows that she wouldn’t trade a day _(that day, that moment) _with Stefan for anything, not when he was her everything, and the universe had delivered him to her right when it was meant to.

_(He got my message.)_  
  


_(It’s been a hell of a ride.)_

**Author's Note:**

> Please review, but nothing nasty!


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